Thai Green Pawpaw Salad
This guilt free vibrant Thai inspired salad recipe works beautifully with my BBQ Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks. It pairs just as well with almost any protein, BBQ prawns, grilled steak, steamed fish, chicken skewers and the like.
Equipment
- Mandolin (optional)
- Food processor or medium sized grater
- Medium grating & fine slicing food processor blades (optional)
- Salad spinner (optional)
- 4 litre plastic or glass container with lid (optional)
Ingredients
- 6-8 medium red shallots
- 2-3 cups coriander leaves (loosely packed)
- 1-2 cups mint leaves (loosely packed)
- ½ large green pawpaw
- 3 long red chillies
- 1-2 tablespoons palm sugar
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (approximately 3 limes)
- 2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 100 g roasted & salted peanuts
- 2-3 tablespoons peanut oil
- 50 g fried shallots
Instructions
Dressing
- Chop palm sugar into small pieces.
- Warm fish sauce in 500ml microwavable jug, add palm sugar & stir to dissolve.
- Juice limes & add 1/3 cup to fish sauce mixture & stir.
- Taste the dressing. It should have a balance of sweet, salty, and sour.
- Adjust with more lime juice, palm sugar, and fish sauce to your taste.
- Pour into bottom of four litre container with lid.
Salad
- Peel and slice shallots into 3mm rounds on a mandolin or as thin as possible with a knife. Add to the dressing in the four-litre container.
Prepare green pawpaw:
- Remove seeds from the half pawpaw with a dessert spoon.
- Use a vegetable peeler to peel the pawpaw.
- If using a food processor, cut the pawpaw into chunks that will fit down the feeder tube. If using a box grater, keep the pawpaw in large pieces.
- Use a medium sized grater or processor blade & grate the pawpaw.
- Add to the four-litre container (do not mix, you want layers!)
Prepare chillies:
- Slice one chilli lengthwise in half & scrape out the seeds & white membrane.
- Finely chop one chilli. Add the chopped chilli to the four-litre container (do not mix, you want layers!)
- Slice the last two chillies into 5mm rounds & set aside for topping.
Prep the herbs:
- Wash & dry the coriander & mint well.
- Pick the leaves from the stems, leaving behind and tough or damaged leaves. A few fine stems in the salad is fine.
- Add the coriander & mint leaves to the four-litre container (do not mix, you want layers!)
- Seal the salad container (do not toss salad) and leave in the fridge until ready to serve.
Salad toppings
- Heat peanut oil in medium frying pan or wok on medium-high heat.
- Add sliced chillies and fry until starting to soften and crisp up.
- Add peanuts and continue to fry until peanuts are golden brown.
- Remove from heat & cool to room temperature.
- Seal in a container until required. Keep at room temperature unless making a day ahead, then refrigerate overnight.
To serve salad
- Just before serving toss the salad in the four-litre container & arrange on a serving platter or in individual bowls.
- Add fried shallots to peanut & chilli topping mix & sprinkle over salad
- Serve any extra topping mix along with the salad.
Just before you cook with abandon…
Make ahead layering technique. This is the perfect salad to layer into a large container and keep in the fridge until needed. You can make it the night before or fist up the morning of your event. By adding the sliced shallots to the dressing first, they will pickle, soften, and take on a more mellow flavour. You then add the other salad ingredients in turn, finishing with the herbs so they don’t come in contact with the dressing until you’re read to serve up. Keep the salad topping in a separate container, and only add the fried shallots just before you’re ready to serve.
Get ahead with your toppings. If you make this pawpaw salad recipe to go with my BBQ Massaman Curry Lamb Shanks recipe you will need more chillies, peanuts & fried shallots. When combining the recipes, you need 4 long red chillies, 150g salted roasted peanuts & 100g fried shallots. Then you can fry up the chillies & peanuts in one go.
Limes. I love limes and hate waste. This recipe only uses the lime juice but don’t let the lime zest go to waste! Make sure you zest them before you juice the limes. I keep a small container of lime zest in the freezer that I keep adding to when the opportunity arises. Perfect for adding extra zest to a cake or brightening up a savory dish or sauce.